Dian Kuswandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 05/02/2008 1:46 PM | Focus Seto Tri Cahyo, 14, left his junior high school because he could not cope with the rising tide of surplus subjects sinking him under carriculum overload and teacher pressures. "When I hadn't finished understanding one subject, my teacher was already introducing a new one. It went on like that over and over again," Seto told the Post. This got worse as he was overwhelmed by a mountain of homework. "I was often asked to write out punishments like 'I did not do my homework because I am stupid and naughty'," said Seto, whose brother and sister were university graduates. Another teacher punished him by telling him to repeatedly write out hundreds of lines on paper, quite unrelated to educational needs or motivation. His slow progress in class caused another problem when his teachers relegated him to the back row of the class. "Only the smartest ones deserved the front row. Our teachers only explained things to them, ignoring the rest, including me," Seto told The Jakarta Post. Due to depression, Seto, a former student at the State Elementary School SDN Tanjung Barat 07 Pagi in South Jakarta, failed his final exams and could not go on to higher studies.

He failed again in the repeat year, which made him really fed up. No matter how hard his family pushed him, he just wanted to leave school and play the guitar. The problem with Seto and other students who cannot cope with subject saturation stems from what education expert Utomo Dananjaya calls a 'materiocentric' curriculum overloaded with surplus subjects. "Our curriculum has always been too 'materiocentric', focusing on teaching materials. As a result, education has focused on transfer of knowledge, where teachers have positioned themselves as instructors rather than facilitators," said Utomo, director of the Institute for Education Reform. "As the curriculum has been overloaded with subjects, teachers have been force feeding students with materials that are irrelevant to their needs and interests," Utomo said. The combination of this 'materiocentric" approach and the overloaded curriculum has caused student stress, he added. "Teachers order this and that, putting pressures on students with homework, imposing punishments and verbal abuse when they make mistakes. In the end, this kills off student motivation," Utomo said. He went on to say that poor educational practice in the country put no respect on student's rights. "The law on education respects young people's rights. It says the purpose of education is to facilitate development of students' spiritual, moral and creative potential." Utomo said. "Even the current curriculum is actually aimed at encouraging students' creativity." "The concepts are all great, but they have failed in their implementation in the classrooms because teachers have no clue on how to put these concepts into practice," Utomo said. Utomo said this was exacerbated by the fact that no concrete effort had been made by the Education Ministry to get teachers to understand what the law and the curriculum said. "When creating the law and curriculum, the government should have considered implementation at classroom level. It should try to make teachers fully understand how to put these concepts into practice," Utomo said. Suyatmi, headmistress of State Elementary School SDN Sumur Batu 12 Pagi in Jakarta, confirmed this, saying teachers were often confused about what the curriculum actually required. "Teachers are required to do this and that, and to prepare things we have never been expected to do before," Suyatmi told the Post. She gave an example that last year the curriculum included civic education in the social sciences. But this year, civics was dropped from the social sciences and became a new subject. "This messed up both teachers and students," Suyatmi said. Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo, however, said the current curriculum, called the Single Level Education Curriculum (KTSP), allowed school boards and teachers to decide on their own materials. "There's no such thing as a national curriculum anymore. With the current curriculum schools can develop their own teaching system and materials depending on their needs," Bambang told the Post. "Previously, the change of curriculum was due to the change of the education minister. But now, change depends on schools and teachers," Bambang added. Utomo, however, disagreed with this and said, "There is no fundamental change in the current curriculum. It's still 'materiocentric'. The structure is the same as before, only it uses different terms." Utomo said that the 'materiocentric' approach was acceptable if limited to mathematics, sciences and languages. "But outside these, subjects like sports and arts shouldn't focus on concepts. Why would students learn theories about traditional dances when all they see are pictures and all they read are words? I don't believe their teachers can dance," Utomo said. Utomo suggested that the government should evaluate educational practice at school level to ensure it did not violate the purposes of education as mandated in the law. "There should be an end to old fashioned teaching styles, because the law already stipulates that education should make students more creative so their potential can be developed." "And teachers should not depress students by conventional commands like 'sit properly, and listen to me'," Utomo said.